


A Dreamer's Complaint

by rlyehtaxidermist



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 04:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17400098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rlyehtaxidermist/pseuds/rlyehtaxidermist
Summary: As the Dream World prepares for the new year, Doremy handles some of the more troublesome residents.Written for Touhou Secret Santa 2018.





	A Dreamer's Complaint

The new year was a busy time in the Dream World for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, people all across the world were awake late, and often intoxicated; while early into their night they might have dreamless sleep, for most it would give way to vivid, detailed dreams. The sort that might merit closer attention than they might usually receive.

Further, many sleepers, in particular those in that troublesome little patch of not-quite-space called Gensokyo, would be carefully watching their dreams closely, for images like a snow-covered mountain or a hawk. Such scrutiny might see them slipping away into the Dream World at large.

This year, things seemed to be particularly hectic; it even seemed like all the bell-ringing had begun to slip into dreams from reality. Doremy had made a note to ask if the long-nosed one had left a window open.

All in all, Doremy Sweet had a myriad things on her mind, and a myriad bodies to tend to them, but she’d long since come to expect it. What she did not usually expect was people, or any reasonable facsimiles thereof, _knocking on her door_ at any time of the year; not least because normally, she didn’t have a door at all.

There were plenty of doors in the Dream World, of course, but most of them were more symbolic separators within a given dreamer’s mind rather than anything of significance to Doremy or the Dream World at large.

Which was why it posed some issue when someone decided that, come hell or high water, they would go around knocking on every door in the Dream World. Doremy knew from about the fifth or sixth door that they were looking for her, rather than some dreamer or another, but managing the dreams of billions of people was an excellent distraction from any aspiring interruptions, and she knew they would get bored eventually.

After five or six _million_ doors, it became slightly more worthy of note. She forked off a body, sliding into dream-existence behind the most likely next door. At the first knock, she pulled open and sauntered through the upside-down door, before planting her feet firmly on the room’s ceiling.

Staring up at her was a short, golden-haired demon wearing a red bow. Gengetsu, if she remembered correctly; the one who didn’t dress like a maid.

“Oh. It’s you.” Doremy sighed. The Dream World had taken on so many unwanted tenants lately, she’d almost forgotten about the old ones. “You’re a long way from home.” She rolled one eye, keeping the other fixed on the girl.

The girl crossed her arms, huffed, and stared up at Doremy. “I’m here to make a complaint!” she declared proudly.

Doremy sighed, half-closing her eyes. “And what might that be?” In the background, she forked off four bodies to borrow a nearby dreamer’s mahjong table. Knowing these two, she’d need some more minds to keep occupied.

“Someone was causing all sorts of trouble and they didn’t invite us!” Over at the mahjong table, the Doremy in the north seat pinched the bridge of her nose, but the Doremy in the doorway kept her face fixed in her usual glance of slightly-condescending concern.

Of _course_ that was it. “I don’t recall you ever needing an invitation before.”

“There’s never been anyone else doing stuff before!” Gengetsu said with an exaggerated pout. “Well, other than the moon people, but they’re _never_ any fun.”

Doremy fought back the urge to disagree. To the right mindset, the Lunarians could be the _most_ entertaining of the Dream World’s visitors, but demons rarely had the right mindset for anything. Perhaps she’d talk to Makai’s goddess about that, one day, if she ever dreamt.

“Well, if you say so,” she said, twisting a honey-sweet tone into her voice, “but you know, even if you’d done something, I’m not sure how well it would’ve gone for you.”

“What?”

“The dreamers were all riled up because one of them brought in their physical body.” She manifested another body, this one right-side up, out of the dream-stuff behind Gengetsu, and poked her in the very-physical shoulder. “Now, while a little divine meddling and self-reflection sorted it out for _her_ ,” the two Doremys both pointed up with a wiggled finger, “I’m not sure if there’s much available there for _you_.”

“The dreamers? What?” Gengetsu asked. “I don’t know anything about that! I mean the Perfect Possession stuff! Mugetsu said that Louise said that everyone was talking about it back in Makai, that Gensokyo had a whole incident about possession without a single demon. And she said it happened because of the Dream World, _and_ that the masterminds were twin sisters! That should've been _our_ gig! And since it’s Gensokyo, we could get revenge on that shrine maiden and witch from last time, too!”

She continued on for a while longer, but both Doremys quickly faded their eardrums back into the dreams around her. In theory she could still hear it, but she had other things to do; over at the mahjong table, the west-seat Doremy got ready for her round as dealer.

When it seemed that Gengetsu was waiting for a response, both Doremys disintegrated, and she conjured a third body, floating in the air in front of Gengetsu. “So, what exactly should _I_ do about it?” she asked, the bold lilt in her voice claiming that she already knew the answer.

“We invade Gensokyo!” Gengetsu thrust a fist into the air with a loud cheer.

Doremy clapped her hands together, producing the sound of a heavy book being slammed shut. “Absolutely not.”

“We infiltrate Gensokyo!”

“Still no.”

“We, uh...” Gengetsu shrugged. “Observe? Gensokyo?”

Doremy sighed. “I’ll copy some newspapers from dreaming tengu.” She smiled. “I’m sure that’ll let you keep an eye on any future happenings.”

After a moment’s pause, Gengetsu nodded. “Alright. Next time they try something, we’ll be right there!”

“Excellent.” Doremy said, vanishing with a slight laugh before reappearing a moment later. “On that note, where _is_ your sister?”

Gengetsu beamed proudly. “She’s looking for your doorbell!”

The body facing Gengetsu did nothing.

Over at the Mahjong table, the south round was interrupted by the Doremy in the east seat leaning forward and faceplanting directly into her discard.

So _that’s_ what all the ringing was about.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for the terrible delays with posting this; I've had a surprisingly busy holiday for someone with seemingly nothing to do, and the editing fought me for a long time.
> 
> I've written [some short Doremy and Gengetsu stuff](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9456908/chapters/24275070) before, but it was back before we saw the full scale of Doremy in AoCF, so with that in mind we've flipped from "someone from the Dream World has to keep the big bad demons in line" to "the Supreme Ruler of Dreams is mildly annoyed by this small demon child's antics".
> 
> the implicit Igor cameo was pretty much a necessary function of me writing any phrase resembling "between dreams and reality"; as indulgent impulses go it's not a terrible one


End file.
